Wright Electric has some news to share

One of the most ambitious players in the field of zero-carbon aircraft research and development is Wright Electric.

After a few months’ with little in the way of news, the Albany, NY-based startup has announced that it has been selected by the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), or its Aviation-class Synergistically Cooled Electric-motors with iNtegrated Drives (ASCEND) program to be more precise, to conduct research into electric propulsion motors, drives, and the associated thermal management systems. If all goes well these, could, one day, be used on commercial electric aircraft. such as the “Wright 1”, which it presented last January with great fanfare.

The programme Wright Electric has been selected for is divided in two stages: the first one revolves around design and subcomponent testing, while stage two will involve the construction and testing of the whole system.

Thus, the Y Combinator startup , which counts already European low cost airline Easyjet as a partner, can boast of yet another qualified endorsement.

The race to build a viable zero-emissions aircraft for 186 passengers before the end of this decade remains quite a steep obstacle course, though.

The two propulsion alternatives that are currently researched by the industry, batteries and hydrogen, have each challenges of their own. In the case of aircraft of these dimensions, capable of replacing the industry’s present day workhorses, many industry experts lean towards hydrogen, since current battery technology has serious energy-density limitations.

In this regard, Wright’s Electric CEO, Jeff Engler confirmed to me in a phone conversation that the firm is looking at three different alternatives for its zero-emissions project: fully electric and powered by batteries, hybrid fuel+electric (batteries) and batteries+hydrogen.

He also said that it expects to be able to conduct ground tests of its motor in 2021 and flight tests in 2023.

A tall order…